I signed up for Bluesky on November 2nd. Why then you ask? I had “try Bluesky or Threads” on my to do list for a long time. I was waiting until I had time to do it. Which meant finishing Java OCP 21 Certified Professional Study Guide and submitting all Word document drafts of Real-World Java: Helping You Navigate the Java Ecosystem. After that I started catching up on the many things I want to do. It was easy to decide between the two platforms. I remembered a number of Brazilian users had started using Bluesky when X temporarily banned their country. And by November 2nd, tech twitter had started moving over as well.
I do use Mastodon but it doesn’t fulfill the same need for me. For example, plain text search is something I use on Twitter/X and Bluesky that Mastodon does not have. So now I check three social media sites periodically. Some duplication; some differences in perspective.
Here is where I am right now. I’m sure this will change over time, but at just under two weeks, it is enough to feel comfortable.
Security
The only option for two factor is to receive an email with the two factor code, such as 5HAGF-MBYB1, and type it in. (I could copy paste in the browser, but not always in apps). Kinda annoying, but I’m set up now.
Youc an also set up application passwords instead of giving a third party application your real password which is nice.
Starter pack
Starter packs are groups of people you can follow with “follow all” to quickly get started. I followed the Java Champions starter pack. I also had some accounts I had stored in my to do list of people who gave their handles when they left Twitter/X that I was following. After I joined, Sharat created Java Community Starter Packs One and Two.
You can see all starter packs here and search/filter for what you are interested in.
Lists
In addition to my following feed, I subscribed to two lists. One on Cyber Security and one on US Politics. Both are things I want to check periodically but don’t need in my main feed. I expect to add more lists over time.
iPhone client
The official Bluesky Social app works great on the phone.
Mac client
While you can use the official Bluesky app, it is vey clearly an iPhone app. It’s the size of an iPhone which is very much not what I want on my computer. However, I was happy with the browser tab on a computer. I just didn’t want it in my main browser window with all the other stuff I aspire to look at :).
I asked on BlueSky and Josh Long had a great idea. On Safari on Mac, you can choose File > Add to Dock to get a shortcut for just that browser tab. Opening it is like a full screen app. Perfect. Oddly I can’t upload images to my posts so I use the main browser when I want to do that but the docked tab for read/write in general.
iPad client
While you can use the official Bluesky app, it is vey clearly an iPhone app. It’s the size of an iPhone and making it bigger just makes the font huge rather than being reactive. Also, I couldn’t type on the dummy iPhone keyboard. I abandoned that approach almost immediately.
I also tried Graysky. I couldn’t get it to let me log in with two factor and gave up on that too.
iPad has a similar approach to Mac for storing a browser link. However, it opened as a tab my main browser which is what I wanted to avoid! Additionally, I want to see notifications on my Ipad which a browser doesn’t do.
Then I tried the Skeets app which is working great for me. There’s a free and paid version. So far, the free version does everything I want.
